The sound of a stage light going off drops the entire theater into darkness, and in the half-blink before I open my eyes once more, the five of us are returned inside [Hauntsgirl], sitting across the sofa...! The only difference is that I am now left holding a gigantic empty bucket of nothing, thanks Madi-san!
"I thought I was the cult's st victim. Suddenly, I'm not so sure anymore. I---"
Oracion is interrupted by a pair of sobbing idiots in Madi-san and Annalie who both have put their sobbing arms around our pink-haired friend!
"Bweeeh! Even after hearing it again..."
"We WILL make those culties pay, >for you, piinku!"
"Wha...? That's it?! What DID the culties do??"
I wring my arms in absolute confusion. Did I accidentally press the 'skip dialogue' button on this visual novel somewhere? You can't just hide a critical piece of information from the detective! I'm sorry for saying something that nobody wants to hear, but we really need a live-action repy of what the culties did to ---EEEP!!!
Madi-san suddenly shot me a most diabolical mean look!
That's the look when Madi-san reserves for the worst of glowies, culties and jannies that mess with her! What did I do wrong this time?!
"Ayano-dono," Val-sama puts a hand on my shoulder, "Some things are better off >implied, don't you think?"
W-why am I suddenly the vilin in here! I want the truth! I want to solve this crime as a mystery! Is that too much to ask?
Madi-san loosens her comforting hug on Oracion's body, crossing her arms in a pout at me!
"Yeah! But you didn't have to be a jackass about it, Aya-chan!"
Well sumimasen, great and considerate Madi-san who always cares for other's feelings except for her own best friend's! What am I, a dross of seaweed stuck to the bottom of a sailboat? What about MY emotional needs?
"With a word of fairness, there's a critical point in senior's story that Ayano-dono noticed. "
Exactly! Finally, someone is sticking up for me for once! Only Val-sama is fair and kind to me!
"... its the ntern."We have no idea who Fox-Mask is, neither do we have any leads on what the pink mist really does or where it comes from, but we DO have a solid lead on the device that is used to process it!
"If we are to catch the 'How' of this mystery, we have to get our hands on a copy of that ntern! I remember that one was used in the auction room st night! If Rufti is not aligned with the cultists, it is likely that the ntern copy is still in the Galopin family's possession!"
"Exacta! That means we have to find that silver-haired brat..."
hai? It is strange that Madi-san is so readily agreeing with me now, but considering that in order to solve for either the mystery or conspiracy side, we need to have some idea of the 'How'! Madi-san's ego is probably defted a bit after her perfect dice was shown to not be so perfecto after all!
"I think senior and I will pass on looking for Rufti."
That makes sense, Val-sama, you and Oracion are the most involved with the incident st night, so getting close to her will definitely arouse some small suspicion.
"... but you are oddly close to the girl, Aya-chan!"
"Aya-chan is yuribaiting! She's been doing it the whole morning!"
"What's yuribaiting, Madison?"
"You see, when a girl likes another girl---"
STOPPU! You crazy purple-haired biichii! Not a single word from you now! Annalie's eyes have already gone into pinprick levels of 'but girls can't like girls' now! That is complete snder!
>implying that I had any interest in Rufti>implying my main aim isn't in solving this mystery>implying that I am not the seiso one here!
Annalie seems completely unconvinced, or more likely, my >greentext flew right over her empty head! Madi-san is nudging Annalie with an elbow, whispering unhearable nothing in her ear, when both her eyes light up with a sudden enlightenment! Now thoroughly determined to correct my 'evil ways' that Madi-san has so impnted into her head with mischievous giggles, she decres---
"I'm going to come along, then! Who knows what Aya-chan might get up to if she's alone with you, Madison!!!"
You--- What?! Do you not have better things to do, you crazy priestess?
It is here that Annalie seems to be struck with a sudden realization,
"Ehhhh... But I need to take care of the two patients upstairs too..."
Patients? Upstairs? Are you healing someone else other than me this morning? That person is probably Wolf-Ears up there right? Who's the second one? Before she can expose herself, Val-sama rubs Annalie's shoulders from behind with gentleness!
"Senior and I can hold down the fort here, go on ahead Nana-chi!"
"Then its settled! The three of us will go look for that Frxnch horsewoman!"
I clutch both hands to my head at how quick this woman's mind turns in three-sixty degrees!
"You're a Frxnchwoman as well, you crazy biichii!"
"Details, details! Let's go, Aya-chan, Annalie!"
With sudden movement, Madi-san grabs a hold of my wrist and charges out with Annalie in tow!
The jingling of the doorbell signals the departure of a troublesome duo, leaving little Miss Piinku and the graduated veetuba alone in [Hauntsgirl]. As Val gets up, the small assortment of teacups and pottery wobble with a faint glow, stacking themselves in the air, following her to the kitchen-side!
"... Valerie."
"Yes, senior?"
"You stopped Annalie from telling our friends about the other person in a coma upstairs.
"It would just complicate things. Neko-chan is with [GLOYW Agency], and Madison has an... intense dislike for glowies."
"... we shouldn't lie to our friends. I can't help but feel a little uneasy."
Oracion exhales a breath of air, leaning back on the sofa with eyes closed. There are a dozen troubles running through her mind right now, and dealing with a catgirl who fell from a roof twice in one night and miraculously lived is not something she could do much about. When Master brought her in, she was half-dead to begin with...
Keeping secrets from Madison and Ayano was impossible. It would be found out sooner than ter. Just as she had tried to keep her position as a [Trono Palido] member secret for the first two weeks of meeting them, the secret came out naturally as the newcomers turned the town upside down in search of the mythological Lord Protector. Moreover, Oracion's own heart feels a little strange, keeping a key piece of information from those who fully trust her.
This... won't come back to haunt her, will it?
Amidst the clinking of porcein washing itself in magickal glow, Val shuts off the running water.
"There's no problem, senior. If Madison wants to get involved, then there's no doubt...
... it's a conspiracy."
On the other side of town, a single tomboyish girl has her head down at a cafe table, a tall cup of hot cocoa standing completely untouched on the patio table. Even though a whole morning had passed since she ran red-faced across town to the [Elisea Phanto Cafe], it still felt like weeks had passed by in hazukashi [1] embarrassment!
The blue-eyed and dark haired [La Monarquía] had just confessed to her...
(I did not.)
How... how indecent!
(It was NOT!)
Even now, the princely tomboy could remember how she outstretched her hand like the main love interest of a shoujo manga; and with hot and heavy breathing and overly-saturated filters, invited her to a forbidden world of fantazzies...!
(I DID NOT!!!)
Your small and cute narrator internally screaming at whatever hot and steamy yabai scene our Prinz cooked up in her overactive mind. While the two horseguys standing behind her stood there like mindless dolts, your narrator is CLEARLY able to overhear her Watson's thoughts clear as day! These are NOT thoughts fit for publication, what are you doing with my (imagined) body there! Why am I the taller one in this retionship?!
Shaking off the cobwebs and gutter junk in her head, my Watson sms both hands on the table, standing up to the full alertness of the pair of oversized Horseguys behind her. She had made a decision...!
Then, realizing the futility of it all, wilted like a crumpled rose back into her seat, head down once more and stirring the spoon stuck in her tall gss of cocoa delight. There was no way that someone with [La Monarquía's] prestige would have openly confessed to her. This was surely a misunderstanding! (It is!) Yet, even if she knows that in her beating heart of hearts, she doesn't quite want to clear this misunderstanding up; if only to savor this moment for a little longer...! (Please do.)
As our grey-haired Prinz's mind slips into indecent thoughts involving my likeness once more, the grating sound of a chair dragged against concrete sets a single person in the patio seat. Thinking that her dark beauty had come for her, Rufti looked up with all the eagerness of a newborn calf, only to meet eyes with an unfamiliar face.
"Is this seat taken?"
"...? Who are you?" A little confused, Rufti gnces at the half-empty cafe. There were plenty of empty tables, but this new face had come right up to her seat. What's more, she didn't trigger her Horseguy guards, so she didn't have any evil intentions in her heart.
... maybe?
This 'new face' had an odd familiarity to her, but she just couldn't pce where... Looking into her red-dyed lips, our Prinz scours her mind, but just as she was about to find an answer---
[SFX: SLAM!]
Having put her foot in the door [2], the orange-haired woman leans in with an elbow propped against the patio table! The sudden and forceful movement caused Rufti's heart to skip a ba-dump and half a doki! All st minute resistance is trampled on as the easily swayed Prinz's heart races around a horsetrack of odd thoughts!
"Hei. Seems to me that you are in distress...
Your heart is in a mess, no?
Fortunate.
It so happens, that I am a doctor of the heart!"
Go Go And Learn Moonrunes and Usodo With Aya-chan![1]hazukashi - 恥ずかし, means to be embarrassed or ashamed of your thoughts and deeds! A-as you should be, my Watson! What are you THINKING this early in the morning!
[2] Foot In The Door Technique - A psychological trick to induce people to lower their guard; do a small favor for the mark and then ask a big favor afterwards. They will be inclined to do the rge favor because otherwise it makes no logical sense to do the small favor! The small favor is the 'foot in the door' that stops rejection!
